The Forest Apothecary serves as an ecclectic online compilation of some of my herbal recipes, plant ponderings and insights.

I hope you find my notes here useful and enjoyable.

~ Green Blessings ~

Sacred Spaces & Faerie Places

A sort of faerie-goddess-plant diva has been visiting me on occasion, since I've started my herbal ally research. She started as a face in my sketch book, some watercolors, and has now ended up on canvas in a collage piece. Who knows what other places she may take me.She is reliable, strong, steadfast and true. Can you see the print on her hair? This was a rosemary branch dipped in paint then pressed on canvas.

Also, much to my delight, I recently re-discovered some natural incense that I crafted last year in a forgotten drawer. Last season I started getting into the idea of crafting my own incense using dried herbs and flowers from my garden. There are so many blend possibilities and research on natural incense is fascinating! These pellets are crudely shaped, but their scent is divine. I've always found that smudging or burning natural incense is condusive to creating a sacred space and evoking my creative muse. It's particularly lovely to burn when doing herbal meditations, especially when crafted by one's own hand. For that matter even just the act of gathering the ingredients and forming the pellets is meditative. This particular blend also contained raw natural honey as a binder. If you're at all interested, I leave you with the ingredients, which of course includes my beloved rosemary.

Amounts are not indicated, so use your judgement, what feels right, or as I've sometimes been known to write down in my scientifically correct herbal recipe journals... a "pinch or a drop" :) The botanicals were ground by hand in my mortar & pestle, though I did leave some of the rose petals whole.